Sensex range-bound; metal, auto, realty down

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MUMBAI: The Sensex continued to move in a narrow range with negative bias on Monday as traders remained on sidelines after a mildly bullish trade on Friday. According to analysts, the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy review tomorrow will provide direction to the benchmarks in the near term.

"Nifty snapped the three session weakness with a mildly bullish trade on Friday as bargain hunters looked to accumulate longs near multiple support levels in a largely bullish structure," said an Edelweiss report.

"It is also important to note the quality of movers on Friday, led by high beta sectors indicating 'risk-on'. It is strongly recommended to position bullishly for the remaining couple of weeks into the close of calendar year that has historically been positive and look for a test of new-highs towards 6,000 / 6,037 resistance cluster. The view remains intact as long as 5,750 remains inviolate on the downside," the report added.

At 02:00 pm, the 30-share index was at 19,262.75, down 54.50 points or 0.28 per cent. The index touched a high of 19,346.78 and a low of 19,241.53 in trade today.

The Nifty was at 5,860.90, down 18.70 points or 0.32 per cent. It touched a high of 5,886.05 and a low of 5,856.05 in trade today.

The BSE Midcap Index was up 0.57 per cent and the BSE Smallcap Index moved 0.49 per cent higher.

Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Metal Index was up 1.07 per cent, the BSE Auto Index moved 0.74 per cent higher and the BSE Realty Index gained 0.68 per cent. The BSE IT Index was down 1.25 per cent and the BSE Capital Goods Index slipped 0.42 per cent.